Automatic electric stopping device for textile machines in case of breaking of a roving



y 24, 1956, H. HALLEUX 2,756,296

AUTOMATIC ELECTRIC STOPPING DEVICE FOR TEXTILE MACHINES IN CASE OFBREAKING OF A ROVING ss 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Dec. 17, 19

ATORNEY y 24, 1956 H. HALLEUX 2,756,296

AUTOMATIC ELECTRIC STOPPING DEVICE FOR TEXTILE MACHINES IN CASE OFBREAKING OF A ROVING Filed Dec. 17. 1953 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTORHubert Halleux BY I I TTORNE Y United States Patent AUTOMATIC ELECTRICSTOPPING DEVICE FOR TEXTILE MACHINES IN CASE OF BREAKING OF A ROVIN GHubert Halleux, Mulhouse, Haut-Rhin, France, assignmto SocieteAlsacienne de Constructions Mecaniques, Mulhouse, Haut-Rhin, France, acorporate body of France Application December 17, 1953, Serial No.398,850

Claims priority, application France January 12, 1953 4 Claims. (Cl.ZOO-61.18)

The invention relates to an automatic device which electrically breaksthe contact in case the rovings or strands should snap apart, whichdevice can be used for feeding textile machines handling more or lessthick coarse roves, in particular, drawing heads.

The devices most commonly used at present are constituted by a bottomdriven cylinder or roller and by an upper set of free control rollers.The roves pass between these bottom and top rollers and electricallyinsulate them. Each of these top rollers straddles two rovings and isguided at each end in a flexible coupling or at its middle part only.Should a roving be lacking, the corresponding control roller comes intocontact with the bottom roller thus interrupting an electric circuit andcausing the machine to stop.

Such devices have the following drawbacks:

When a large number of rovings are being fed through the machine itstotal width becomes much larger than the width of the feed head, owingto the space taken up by the intervening flexible couplings. It istherefore necessary before they enter the head, to reduce the rovingfleece to the required size by means of a set of guides, thuscomplicating the travel of the rovings. The top rollers must furthermorebe hand-operated and raised, then replaced in succession when themachine is being restored to operating condition. In short these toprollers cannot be supplied practically with a cleaning device so thatthe fibres adhering to their surface cannot stop the electric contactbetween these top and bottom rollers.

The object of the invention is to avoid these drawbacks by making anelectric stopping device which automatically breaks the circuit shouldthe roves snap apart, and which is simple, elfective and practical.

This device is essentially characterized by the fact that it includes,in combination with a bottom driven roller operated in suitable manner,a set of top rollers placed loosely side by side in touching relation,these rollers each controlling one single rove and being threaded on acommon spindle which passes through them with a diameter less than theinternal diameter of the rollers, thus giving free displacement play, ina perpendicular plane of this spindle, relative to the top rollers.

The common spindle which passes through the top rollers, looselyjuxtaposed, is fitted, at its ends, to two bell-crank levers which canpivot on two pins fixed in suitable manner to the supporting-bearings ofthe bottom roller, whereby said two levers which are electricallyinsulated, are connected to each other at their top part by a tie-bar.

The whole of the top rollers may be laterally guided by two ringsfixedly connected to the aforementioned bell crank levers. It is fittedwith a roller cleaner whose spindle is supported in a notch in the bellcrank levers, this roller cleaner resting on the whole set of toprollers.

This device has the following advantages: Less horizontal space is takenup, as the top rollers are all placed side by side, without inserting aguiding whorl,

and therefore the possibility, even with a considerable doubling, toeliminate any additional guide between the automatic stopping device andthe opening of the head to be fed;

Possibility for the whole of the top rollers to be raised simultaneouslyas one unit by means of the two pivoting bell crank levers;

Provision for a cleaner device system for the whole of the rollers.

A method of embodiment of the invention is shown diagrammatically and byway of example, on the accompanying drawing, on which:

Fig. 1 is a front elevation of the arrangement of the prior artdescribed.

Fig. 2 is a front elevation of the improved device constituting thepresent invention.

Fig. 3 is a vertical cross sectional view taken on the line 3-3 of Fig.2.

A known device according to Fig. 1 includes a bottom driven roller 1, aset of top free rollers 2. The rovings 3 pass between rollers 1 and 2.Each of the rollers 2 spans two rovings 3 and are guided at each end ingrooved whorl 4.

The device according to the invention, includes on the intake side a setof separating guides for directing each roving to its place. The rovings6 pass according to arrow F above a bottom roller 7 driven in suitablemanner.

Two side members in the form of hell crank levers 10 and 11 arepivotally mounted on two pins 8 and 9, through the medium of sleeves orother insulating devices, secured to the supporting bearings 9a ofroller 7. These two bell-crank levers 10 and 11 are connected to a rigidshaft 12, easily removable and about which loosely turns top rollers 13juxtaposed side by side freely. These rollers 13 are advantageouslyfitted inside with sleeves of a selflubricating conducting material. Thewhole set of rollers 13 is guided at the sides by two collars 14 and 15integral with bell crank levers 10 and 11.

In a notch 16 of levers 10 and 11 rests the shaft of a roller cleaner 17which normally rests on the set of rollers 13. Furthermore, the top endsof levers 10 and 11 are connected by a rod 18, said rod allowing theraising simultaneously, in the direction of the arrow G, all the rollers13, without having to withdraw the roller cleaner 17.

The common shaft 12 has a lesser diameter than the internal diameter ofthe rollers 13 each of which controls a single roving 6, as shown inFigure 2; said rollers may likewise be freely displaced relatively tothe shaft 12, so that when a roving is lacking, roller 13 which controlsit can descend downwardly relatively to the other rollers and come intocontact with roller 7, thus closing an electric circuit. This circuit,low-voltage fed, comprises for instance a three-pole relay which whenstarted stops the motor of the machine, lights up a tell-tale lamp, andin addition, short-circuits the whole stopping device system. By meansof said short-circuit, the operators need no longer fear the alwaysdisagreeable shocks, caused in the usual systems by the breaking of thecurrent, when raising by hand the pressure rollers in order to mend thebroken roving.

What I claim is:

1. Means for automatically stopping a textile machine, comprising, incombination, a feed roller for the strands of textile material, a frameincluding side members, pins insulated from and supported by the machineto pivotally mount the side members, a shaft carried by the sidemembers, a plurality of control rollers disposed in side by siderelation on the shaft for movement both rotational and radially of theshaft, said rollers normally resting on strands of textile materialrelated thereto and impelled by said feed roller, collars carried by theside members and fitting over opposite ends of said shaft to maintainthe said rollers in juxtaposed relation to insure proper tracking onsaid related strips of textile material, a cleaning roll disposed aboveand in peripheral contact with said rollers, said roll having a spindlewhoseends are mounted in the side members for'up and down movement, anda rod connecting the upper ends of the side members and providing meansfor manually rocking said members on said pins to lift the shaft andcontrol rollers away from the feed roller.

2 Automatic electric means for stopping textile machines in case therovings break, comprising, in combination with a roving feed system, abottom feed roller mounted for rotary motion to drive the rovings whichare separated from each other on the surface of the roller, two pinssecured by insulating devices to the supportingbearings of the roller,two bell-crank levers adapted to pivot at each end of the device on saidpins, a rigid shaft connecting the bottom portions of said levers, a'setof control rollers freely mounted on the shaft in side by side relation,said rollers having a larger internal diameter than the diameter of theshaft so that they can both turn freely thereon and also to movevertically, each roller resting on a roving which it controls, twocollars fast with the bell-crank levers and mounted concentric with saidrigid shaft, said collars guiding all of the control rollers juxtaposedbetween the collars, and an electric circuit connected to the bottomroller and also to one of the aforementioned pins, whereby, the normalinterposition of the rovings electrically insulates the bottom feedroller from the top rollers, and the breaking of one roving will causethe stopping of the machine by contact of the related control rollerwith the bottom feed roller.

3. Automatic electric means for stopping textile machines in case therovings break, comprising, in combination with a roving feed system, abottom feed roller mounted on pillow-blocks and driven directly inrotary motion to drive the rovings which are separated from each otheron the surface of the roller, two pins secured by insulating devices tothe supporting-bearings of the roller, two bell-crank levers adapted topivot at each end of the device on said pins, a rigid shaft connectingthe bottom portions of the two levers, a set of individual controlrollers each freely mounted on the common rigid shaft above said feedroller, said rollers having a larger internal diameter than the diameterof the shaft so that they can both turn freely on the shaft and alsomove vertically relative to this shaft, each roller resting on a rovingwhich it controls, two collars on the bell-crank levers and receivingthe ends of said shaft, said collars guiding all of the rollersjuxtaposed ,therebetween, an electric circuit connected to the bottomroller and also to one of the aforementioned pins, and thence to theassembly on the top rollers, and a tie-rod connecting the upper portionsof the two bell-crank levers to permit raising the assembly of controlrollers.

4. Automatic electric means for stopping textile machines in case therovings break, comprising, in combination with a roving feed system, abottom feed roller mounted on pillow-blocks and driven directly inrotary motion to drive the rovings which are separated from each otheron the surface of the roller, two pins secured by insulating devices tothe supporting-bearings of the roller, opposite spaced bell-crank leversadapted to pivot on said pins, a rigid shaft .coupling the bottomportions of the two levers, a set of top control rollers freely mountedon said rigid shaft in side-,by-side relation, said rollers having alarger internal diameter than the diameter of the shaft so that they.can both turn freely on the shaft and also move vertically relative tothis shaft, each roller resting on a roving to which it is responsive,collars fast with the bell-crank levers and non-rotatably connected withsaid rigid shaft, said collars guiding all of the rollers juxtaposedtherebetween, .an electric circuit connected to the bottom roller andalso to one of the aforementioned pins, and thence to the assembly oftop rollers, a tie-rod connecting the top portions of the two bell-cranklevers for raising the assembly of the control rollers, and a rollercleaner whose spindle takes a bearing in a notch of the bell-cranklevers and which rests on the assembly of the top rollers.

References .Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS

